My next race is now less than 5 days away.    It’s actually the very first race I ran and one of my favorite races- the HOB Fun Run.  Also a little nerve wracking because it’s one race where I see a lot of people I know.   Performance anxiety!!  This will be my fifth year running it.   The first 3 years I ran the 5k and last year I was a little crazy.   I ran the 10k… and then the 5k.  The 10k was a PR (55:57) at the time and the 5k was run with C and her husband.

Originally my plan was to warm up for a mile, run the 10k, run the 5k.  That would bring me to 10 miles and I was going to treat that as the last double digit run before the City to the Sea half.   This year with my lovely GI issues (and no City to the Sea), I am torn on what to run.   I want to be just as crazy as I was last year.  Question is can I reign myself in, take it easy and still have fun?  The way I see it I have three options-

A- Run the 10k-easy, spectate the 5k
B- Skip the 10k, run the 5k-moderatly
C- Run both and practice pacing and breathing

Thing is, the 10k has an unofficial time limit of 1:15:00.   Both races have a loop course, the 5k is one loop and the 10k is two loops.    The 5k starts at 9:15 and the 10k at 8:00.   If I take it easy on the 10k, I am hoping that would be around 1:01-1:03 ish.   Which would give me 10 minutes to stretch and hydrate.   I know I can finish the miles, the question is how well and will it be fun.   I have friends running the 5k as well.  If I run with C and her husband, it’ll be around a 30 minute 5k- last year was 30:22- assuming I can stay with them.  I also have one friend running a little slower than that, and a couple more that will be run/ walking with a stroller.  So I have plenty of people to run the 5k with no matter the pace.

I am working the late registration/ packet pick up table on Saturday so I have until then to decide.   So help me out!

What are your thoughts?

Ever run a race 5 years in a row?

Ever run back to back races?